| Summary: | Invited Speaker Climate change is unambiguous and its effects are clearly detected in all functional units of the Earth System. This course presents new analyses of sea surface temperature changes and show that climate change is affecting hydrodynamics and the pelagic biodiversity of the North Atlantic Ocean. Changes are seen from phytoplankton to zooplankton to fish and are modifying the dominance of species and the structure, the diversity and the functioning of marine ecosystems. Changes also range from phenological to biogeographical shifts and have involved in some regions of the Atlantic abrupt ecosystem shifts. These alterations reflect an adaptation of pelagic ecosystems to a warmer temperature regime. Mechanisms are complex because they are nonlinear exhibiting tipping points and varying in space and time. Sensitivity of organisms to temperature changes is high, implicating that a small temperature modification can have sustained ecosystem effects. Implications of these changes for biogeochemical cycles are discussed.
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